Legacy of Durin Question

[Curuer_Bauglir]

First, let me say that I think you did a fantastic job concluding the dwarf storyline. I was getting sick of dwarves, but the payoff was worth it. My question concerns the visions Motsog showed Durin and our characters. One such vision shows winged dragons attacking the Longbeards and Greymauls in the First Age, but how could this be so? Winged dragons didn't appear until the War of Wrath at the very end of the First Age, so the many winged dragons depicted shouldn't have existed in this time. Glaurung, a wingless dragon, was the most powerful dragon until his death in 499 FA. The first appearance of winged dragons was so devastating that the Host of Valinor was driven back, so I find it hard to believe that the skeleton army of the Longbeards and Greymauls could've repelled 9 winged dragons and a balrog. Again, I liked the Motsog storyline, but I wasn't expecting it to include something in conflict with the lore. I think you've done an amazing job of filling in areas within the lore, such as Gothmog/Earnur. I think Motsog was another good example, but including winged dragons was the first time you've painted over lore.

[OldMadeOfLions]

but including winged dragons was the first time you've painted over lore.

It's actually not, but I appreciate the sentiment. The relative sizes of the palantiri (including the fact that they can be different sizes at all!) is included in texts beyond the ones to which we have access, so our palantiri are one-size-fits-all. It's the same with winged dragons: we can only know they existed in bygone ages, and don't have access to the details of when they appeared.

My head-canon is that the battles depicted in the flashbacks at the end of 'The Legacy of Durin and the Trials of the Dwarves' are so near to the end of the First Age that the timing almost nearly works out... but I thought it was better to leave it only hinted at.

MoL

[TesalionLortus]

I think Motsog was another good example, but including winged dragons was the first time you've painted over lore.

I loved that assault but now that you mention it, yeah, hmm weird. I doubt Morgoth pulled all these winged dragons out of a magic hat in an instant so they had to exist earlier, just kept relatively secret, perhaps their part in this assault (and potentially other interactions with the dwarves) could have been like... a weapon testing? Maybe their train of thought was 'Durin's dwarves were so devastated after this that they never really provided support during War of Wrath' Plus relations probably suffered after that murder of elves at Motsog's court? So no exchange of information coupled with dwarven privacy (of sorts) and they probably wouldn't speak much of what they witnessed even among their own kind because of how depressive the whole thing was, which is how all that knowledge was lost to begin with. Although there would be many years for them to rebuild their strength/relations before War of Wrath so still strange if they would be completely shut off, without any info about the winged dragons resurfacing? Unless Motsog was only the beginning of their troubles... and something else caused they were preoccupied and they literally missed War of Wrath under the mountains? *cough* *cough* Shadow King business perhaps... and maybe something even worse...

But that's just my idea. Would be weird if they intentionally ignored the lore not to mentioned forgot about it.

Perhaps a blue name can enlighten us what was their train of thought. Unless there are spoilers... because as I said, Durin/Shadow King/first contact with things beneath the earth is still completely untapped territory of quite some significance as we've seen and heard... It's funny though, Durin VII should have all these answers now, but would he share them? :P Or is this another "Don't you even know what happened in Rhun?" yet nobody ever tells us what actually happened :P Well, unless Durin VII doesn't actually have all the memories yet but it's more like they're returning over time, I wonder how that works

[TesalionLortus]

Ah, MoL has answered already so my question about a train of thought seems needless now, and sounds like there wasn't much of a train of thought :P since the winged dragons information isn't something you have the rights to anyway. Still, I guess my speculation above can be a good answer too, and perhaps, eventually, even a better excuse (with the Durin/Nameless stuff)

[Curuer_Bauglir]

I didn’t even think about licensing issues. Thank you for your response. It is much appreciated.